Mr Felix Akwara, General Manager (GM) of the Bongo Rural Bank (BORBA) Limited, in the Bongo District at the weekend disclosed that the bank exceeded the Bank of Ghana (BoG) mandatory minimum capital requirement for 2017.

He indicated that the bank ended this year’s third quarter with a stated capital of GH₵ 1.23 million which exceeded the mandatory minimum capital requirement of GH₵1million announced by the BoG.
He said the bank made improvement in profit level from GH₵260, 535.00 in 2016 to GH₵292,295.00 in 2017 which is 12.5 per cent, adding that the increment was attributed to the “far-sighted” management of resources and commitments at all levels of operations.
“We are not able to pay dividends now because we have not operated up to ten years, so we are still within the tax exemption period. Going forward next year, we will start to pay dividends now that we are making profit progressively,” he said.
Mr Akwara who made the disclosure at the bank’s sixth Annual General Meeting (AGM) of shareholders, said per the BoG’s rating system for all banks, the BORBA was rated “satisfactory” last year, “that shows an impressive performance, our indicators are good, and we are doing well as a bank”.
He said the bank was again ranked “strong” by the ARB Apex Bank Limited, the mother bank which supervised the work of rural banks, and explained that “strong is one of the measuring categories. We have marginal, fair, satisfactory and strong. Strong is the highest ranking in the ARB Monitoring and Evaluation Unit (MEU)”.
The General Manager added that the bank was ranked second in the region, and occupied the 22nd position out of the 142 rural banks in the country, and reiterated that their performance as a bank was “very bright and we are doing very well”.
Mr Akwara noted that all banks in the country, especially rural banks were strong, and used the opportunity to appeal to customers to have confidence in the bank, and further called on all loan defaulters to pay back all their loans on time to enable the bank to operate effectively.
In a speech read on his behalf, Mr Frank Fuseini Adongo, the Deputy Upper East Regional Minister was delighted that the bank made significant profit by the close of the year under review, in spite of the depreciation of local currency against all the major currencies.
He said per data from the Ghana Statistical Service, the economy expanded with its Gross Domestic Product (GDP) from 3.7 per cent in 2016 to 8.3 per cent in 2017.

“This calls for concerted efforts for all stakeholders and the general public to acquire shares to enable the bank to grow.”
Mr Adongo said rural and community banks were key institutions in the implementation of government policies especially the “Planting for Food and Jobs,” where smallholder farmers could access inputs as shareholders of the bank.
The deputy minister said the presence of the bank in the district contributed towards the livelihood empowerment of the people especially women, and encouraged management to consider partnering the Bongo District Assembly to access credit to purchase straw from Southern Ghana for craftsmen, especially basket weavers because it was one of the key industries in the district that should be explored and expanded.
He charged the bank not to turn away from its mandate and focus, but use its corporate social responsibility to complement government’s efforts by helping to provide essential services such as education and health.GNA